Appealing to the city to return the Congress to power for a fourth successive term, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday announced that party vice-president Rahul Gandhi will hand over ownership rights of houses to people in resettlement colonies on September 10.

There are 45 resettlement colonies in the city, which are home to lakhs of people. Party leaders say the move could be a game-changer in the Assembly polls.

Dikshit made the announcement at a function where the party released a brochure listing the Congress government’s achievements in the last 15 years.

“We have so many resettlement colonies and people have been living in them since the time of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. But they have not been given ownership rights. Rahul Gandhi will give out certificates of ownership to lakhs of people on September 10,” Dikshit said.

Last year, Dikshit had Congress president Sonia Gandhi issue provisional certificates of regularisation to unauthorised colonies.

The CM also promised to regularise another 600 unauthorised colonies and said residents in Lal Dora areas would be allowed to expand their properties. “People have been living there for years and their families must have grown, so they need more space. That is why we are allowing the extension… We are the first one to implement the Food Security Bill and it is Delhi that is governed by Aadhaar cards,” she said.

Responding to a query on the cleaning of the Yamuna, she said, “Give us five more years and we will show you results. We have not been able to clean the river because it is not only Delhi that has to clean the Yamuna. There are other states through which the Yamuna flows before and after arriving in Delhi,” Dikshit said.

Shakeel Ahmad, in charge of Delhi elections, said the Congress was confident that Dikshit would become CM for a fourth term. “We have fulfilled promises made in the last manifesto and will fulfill promises this time too,” he added.

Taking a dig at the AAP and BJP, state Congress president Jai Prakash Aggarwal told reporters that the Congress was “not a party born a day ago”, neither was it like the Opposition, “a divided party where no one knows who the CM candidate will be”.

The brochure compared Congress rule with that of the BJP. “In BJP’s tenure, unemployment rose from 1.96 lakh to 5.7 lakh. The Congress brought it down to 1.74 lakh. The BJP spent Rs 300 crore on the health sector whereas we spent Rs 3,263 crore. On education, the BJP spent Rs 886 crore whereas the Congress spent Rs 5,912 crore,” it claimed.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/govt-to-hand-ownership-rights-in-resettlement-colonies/1164870/0